Ultrasound apparatuses and methods for fabricating ultrasound devices

ABSTRACT

Aspects of the technology described herein relate to an ultrasound device including a first die that includes an ultrasonic transducer, a first application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) that is bonded to the first die and includes a pulser, and a second ASIC in communication with the second ASIC that includes integrated digital receive circuitry. In some embodiments, the first ASIC may be bonded to the second ASIC and the second ASIC may include analog processing circuitry and an analog-to-digital converter. In such embodiments, the second ASIC may include a through-silicon via (TSV) facilitating communication between the first ASIC and the second ASIC. In some embodiments, SERDES circuitry facilitates communication between the first ASIC and the second ASIC and the first ASIC includes analog processing circuitry and an analog-to-digital converter. In some embodiments, the technology node of the first ASIC is different from the technology node of the second ASIC.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) of U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/586,716, filed Nov. 15, 2017under Attorney Docket No. B1348.70065US00 and entitled “METHODS ANDAPPARATUS FOR IMPLEMENTING INTEGRATED TRANSMIT AND RECEIVE CIRCUITRY INAN ULTRASOUND DEVICE,” which is hereby incorporated herein by referencein its entirety.

This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) of U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/687,189, filed Jun. 19, 2018under Attorney Docket No. B1348.70083US00 and entitled “APPARATUSESINCLUDING A CAPACITIVE MICROMACHINED ULTRASONIC TRANSDUCER DIRECTLYCOUPLED TO AN ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL CONVERTER,” which is hereby incorporatedherein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD

Generally, the aspects of the technology described herein relate toultrasound devices. Some aspects relate to implementing integratedtransmit circuitry and integrated receive circuitry in ultrasounddevices.

BACKGROUND

Ultrasound probes may be used to perform diagnostic imaging and/ortreatment, using sound waves with frequencies that are higher than thoseaudible to humans. Ultrasound imaging may be used to see internal softtissue body structures. When pulses of ultrasound are transmitted intotissue, sound waves of different amplitudes may be reflected backtowards the probe at different tissue interfaces. These reflected soundwaves may then be recorded and displayed as an image to the operator.The strength (amplitude) of the sound signal and the time it takes forthe wave to travel through the body may provide information used toproduce the ultrasound image. Many different types of images can beformed using ultrasound devices. For example, images can be generatedthat show two-dimensional cross-sections of tissue, blood flow, motionof tissue over time, the location of blood, the presence of specificmolecules, the stiffness of tissue, or the anatomy of athree-dimensional region.

SUMMARY

According to one aspect of the technology, an ultrasound device isprovided, comprising: a first die that comprises an ultrasonictransducer; a first application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) thatis bonded to the first die and comprises a pulser; and a second ASIC incommunication with the first ASIC that comprises integrated digitalreceive circuitry. Alternative configurations for implementingultrasonic transducers, transmit circuitry, and receive circuitry arealso described.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various aspects and embodiments will be described with reference to thefollowing exemplary and non-limiting figures. It should be appreciatedthat the figures are not necessarily drawn to scale. Items appearing inmultiple figures are indicated by the same or a similar reference numberin all the figures in which they appear.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an ultrasound device in accordancewith certain embodiments described herein;

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of another ultrasound device inaccordance with certain embodiments described herein;

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of another ultrasound device inaccordance with certain embodiments described herein;

FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of another ultrasound device inaccordance with certain embodiments described herein;

FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram of another ultrasound device inaccordance with certain embodiments described herein;

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of another ultrasound device inaccordance with certain embodiments described herein;

FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram of another ultrasound device inaccordance with certain embodiments described herein;

FIG. 8 illustrates a block diagram of another ultrasound device inaccordance with certain embodiments described herein;

FIG. 9 illustrates a paradigm for an ultrasound device, in accordancewith certain embodiments described herein;

FIGS. 10-32 illustrate example cross-sections of the ultrasound deviceduring a fabrication sequence for forming the ultrasound device inaccordance with certain embodiments described herein;

FIGS. 33-42 illustrate example cross-sections of an ultrasound deviceduring an alternative fabrication sequence to that of FIGS. 20-32 inaccordance with certain embodiments described herein;

FIGS. 43-45 illustrate simplified cross-sections of an ultrasound deviceduring an alternative fabrication sequence in accordance with certainembodiments described herein;

FIG. 46 illustrates an example of a device implemented as areconstituted wafer, in accordance with certain embodiments describedherein;

FIG. 47 illustrates an example process for forming an ultrasound devicein accordance with certain embodiments described herein;

FIG. 48 illustrates an example process for forming an ultrasound devicein accordance with certain embodiments described herein;

FIG. 49 illustrates an example process for forming an ultrasound devicein accordance with certain embodiments described herein;

FIG. 50 illustrates an example process for forming an ultrasound devicein accordance with certain embodiments described herein;

FIG. 51 illustrates an example block diagram of an ultrasound device inaccordance with certain embodiments described herein; and

FIG. 52 illustrates a diagram of an ultrasonic transducer electricallycoupled to a delta-sigma analog-to-digital converter.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Conventional ultrasound systems are large, complex, and expensivesystems that are typically only purchased by large medical facilitieswith significant financial resources. Recently, less costly and lesscomplex ultrasound imaging devices have been introduced. Such imagingdevices may include ultrasonic transducers monolithically integratedonto a single semiconductor die to form a monolithic ultrasound device.Aspects of such ultrasound-on-a chip devices are described in U.S.patent application Ser. No. 15/415,434 titled “UNIVERSAL ULTRASOUNDDEVICE AND RELATED APPARATUS AND METHODS,” filed on Jan. 25, 2017 andpublished as U.S. Pat. Publication No. 2017/0360397 A1 (and assigned tothe assignee of the instant application), which is incorporated byreference herein in its entirety.

Some implementations of monolithic ultrasound devices may includeintegrated transmit circuitry and integrated receive circuitryimplemented in the same device (e.g., die). The integrated transmitcircuitry and integrated receive circuitry may be, for example,complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) circuitry. The integratedtransmit circuitry may be configured to drive ultrasonic transducers toemit pulsed ultrasonic signals into a subject, such as a patient. Theintegrated transmit circuitry may include integrated analog circuitrysuch as pulsers. The pulsed ultrasonic signals may be back-scatteredfrom structures in the body, such as blood cells or muscular tissue, toproduce echoes that return to the ultrasonic transducers. These echoesmay then be converted into electrical signals by the transducerelements. The integrated receive circuitry may be configured to convertthe electrical signals representing the received echoes into ultrasounddata that can, for example, be formed into an ultrasound image. Theintegrated receive circuitry may include integrated analog circuitry,such as analog processing circuitry and analog-to-digital converters(ADCs), and integrated digital circuitry, such as image formationcircuitry.

The inventors have recognized that, in certain embodiments, it may behelpful to implement analog portions of the integrated transmitcircuitry (e.g., pulsers) and analog portions of the integrated receivecircuitry (e.g., amplifiers and ADCs) in one device (e.g., anapplication-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)) that is bonded to adevice including ultrasonic transducers, and to implement digitalportions of the integrated receive circuitry (e.g., image formationcircuitry) in another device (e.g., an ASIC). This may allow the devicehaving the integrated analog circuitry to be implemented in a differenttechnology node than the device having the integrated digital circuitry.In some embodiments, any digital transmit circuitry may be split betweenthe devices, or implemented entirely on one or the other of the devices.As will be described below, the integrated analog circuitry may benefitfrom implementation in a less advanced (larger) technology node than theintegrated digital circuitry, and the integrated digital circuitry maybenefit from implementation in a more advanced (smaller) technology nodethan the integrated analog circuitry.

To drive the ultrasonic transducers, the inventors have recognized thatpulsers may benefit from operating at high voltages that areapproximately equal to or greater than 10 V, such as 10 V, 20 V, 30 V,40 V, 50 V, 60 V, 70 V, 80 V, 90 V, 100 V, 200 V, or >200 V, or anyvalue between 10 V and 300 V. Increasingly higher voltage levels ofelectronic signals outputted to ultrasonic transducers by the integratedtransmit circuitry may correspond to higher pressure levels of acousticsignals outputted by the ultrasonic transducers. High pressure levelsmay be helpful for emitting acoustic signals into a patient, as pressurelevels of acoustic signals are attenuated as they travel deeper into apatient. High pressure levels may also be necessary for certain types ofultrasound imaging such as tissue harmonic imaging. Circuit devicescapable of operating at acceptably high voltage levels may only beavailable in sufficiently large technology nodes such as 65 nm, 80 nm,90 nm, 110 nm, 130 nm, 150 nm, 180 nm, 220 nm, 240 nm, 250 nm, 280 nm,350 nm, 500 nm, >500 nm, etc.

Furthermore, when the amplifiers and ADCs are in the same device as thepulsers, the amplifiers and ADCs may receive weak signals from theultrasonic transducers through the bonds between the two devices,amplify them, and digitize them. Tight coupling (e.g., low-resistancepaths) between the device having the integrated analog circuitry and thedevice having the integrated digital circuitry may therefore not benecessary because the digitized signals outputted by analog-to-digitalconverters in the integrated analog circuitry to the device having theintegrated digital circuitry may be resilient to attenuation and noise.In some embodiments, a high-speed communication link such as aserial-deserializer (SERDES) link may facilitate communication betweenthe device having the integrated analog circuitry and the device havingthe integrated digital circuitry.

It may be helpful for the integrated digital circuitry, which mayperform digital processing operations, to operate at low voltages thatare approximately equal to or lower than, for example, 1.8 V, such as1.8 V, 1.5 V, 1 V, 0.95 V, 0.9 V, 0.85 V, 0.8 V, 0.75 V, 0.7 V, 0.65 V,0.6 V, 0.55 V, 0.5 V, and 0.45 V. The integrated digital circuitry maybe densely integrated in order to increase its parallel computing powerand may consume a significant portion (e.g., half) of the ultrasounddevice's power. Scaling the operating voltage of the integrated receivecircuitry down by a factor N (where N>1) can reduce the powerconsumption by a factor N^(x) (where x≥1), such as N². Circuit devicescapable of operating at acceptably low voltage levels may, in someembodiments, only be available in technology nodes such as 90 nm, 80 nm,65 nm, 55 nm, 45 nm, 40 nm, 32 nm, 28 nm, 22 nm, 20 nm, 16 nm, 14 nm, 10nm, 7 nm, 5 nm, 3 nm, etc. Furthermore, the inventors have recognizedthat it may be beneficial for the integrated digital circuitry toinclude smaller devices, for example sizes provided by technology nodessuch as 90 nm, 80 nm, 65 nm, 55 nm, 45 nm, 40 nm, 32 nm, 28 nm, 22 nm,20 nm, 16 nm, 14 nm, 10 nm, 7 nm, 5 nm, 3 nm, etc.), to increase thenumber of devices that can be included in a die of a given size, andthereby increase the processing (e.g., data conversion and imageformation) capability of the integrated digital circuitry.

The inventors have also recognized that, in certain embodiments, it maybe helpful to implement the integrated transmit circuitry (e.g.,pulsers) in one device that is bonded to a device including ultrasonictransducers, and to implement integrated receive circuitry (e.g.,amplifiers, ADCs, and image formation circuitry) in another device. Thismay allow the device having the integrated transmit circuitry to beimplemented in a different technology node than the device having theintegrated receive circuitry. The integrated transmit circuitry maybenefit from implementation in a more advanced (smaller) technology nodethan the integrated receive circuitry, and the integrated receivecircuitry may benefit from implementation in a less advanced (larger)technology node than the integrated transmit circuitry.

For considerations described above, the integrated transmit circuitry(e.g., pulsers) may benefit from operating at high voltages that mayonly be available in technology nodes such as 65 nm, 80 nm, 90 nm, 110nm, 130 nm, 150 nm, 180 nm, 220 nm, 240 nm, 250 nm, 280 nm, 350 nm, 500nm, >500 nm, etc. For the power and density considerations describedabove, the integrated receive circuitry (e.g., amplifiers, ADCs, andimage formation circuitry) may benefit from implementation in technologynodes such as 90 nm, 80 nm, 65 nm, 55 nm, 45 nm, 40 nm, 32 nm, 28 nm, 22nm, 20 nm, 16 nm, 14 nm, 10 nm, 7 nm, 5 nm, 3 nm, etc. that providesmall circuit devices capable of operating at acceptably low voltagelevels. A difference between this embodiment and the embodimentdescribed above (in which integrated analog circuitry such asamplifiers, ADCs, and pulsers are in one device with a less advanced(larger) technology node and integrated digital circuitry is in anotherdevice with a more advanced (smaller) technology node) may be that theanalog receive circuitry (e.g., amplifiers and ADCs) may be implementedin a more advanced technology node in this embodiment. Becauseamplifiers and ADCs can consume significant power, implementing thesecircuits in a more advanced technology node may further reduce the powerconsumed by the ultrasound device.

Accordingly, in this embodiment, the ultrasound device may include astack of three devices (e.g., wafers or dies): a first device includingultrasonic transducers, followed below by a second device includingintegrated transmit circuitry, followed below by a third deviceincluding integrated receive circuitry, each device bonded to theadjacent device(s).

The inventors have further recognized that in the stack described above,it may be necessary to transmit a relatively weak analog electricalsignal (e.g., on the order of millivolts or microvolts) representing areceived ultrasound echo from the first device where it is received,through the second device below the first device, and to the thirddevice for processing (e.g., amplification and digitization) by theintegrated receive circuitry. The inventors have recognized thatthrough-silicon vias (TSVs) implemented in the second device may enablethe weak electrical signals to pass through the second device withacceptably low attenuation. The inventors have also recognized that itmay be helpful to thin the second device in order to reduce the heightof TSVs, for example to reduce the capacitance of the TSVs.

In certain embodiments, a hybrid of the above embodiments may include athree-die stack in which SERDES communication links facilitatehigh-speed communication from the second device to the third devicethrough TSVs.

As referred to herein in the specification and claims a device includinga specific type of circuitry should be understood to mean that thedevice includes only that specific type of circuitry or that the deviceincludes that specific type of circuitry and another type/other types ofcircuitry. For example, if an ultrasound device includes a second deviceand a third device, where the second device includes “integratedtransmit circuitry” or “the integrated transmit circuitry” and the thirddevice includes “integrated receive circuitry” or “the integratedreceive circuitry,” this may mean that the second device includes allthe integrated transmit circuitry in the ultrasound device, the seconddevice includes a portion of the integrated transmit circuitry in theultrasound device, the third device includes all the integrated receivecircuitry in the ultrasound device, and/or the third device includes aportion of the integrated receive circuitry in the ultrasound device.Furthermore, the second device may include only integrated transmitcircuitry or other types of circuitry. For example, the second devicemay include both integrated transmit circuitry and integrated receivecircuitry. Furthermore, the third device may include only integratedreceive circuitry or other types of circuitry. For example, the thirddevice may include both integrated receive circuitry and integratedtransmit circuitry.

It should be appreciated that the embodiments described herein may beimplemented in any of numerous ways. Examples of specificimplementations are provided below for illustrative purposes only. Itshould be appreciated that these embodiments and thefeatures/capabilities provided may be used individually, all together,or in any combination of two or more, as aspects of the technologydescribed herein are not limited in this respect.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an ultrasound device 100 inaccordance with certain embodiments described herein. The ultrasounddevice includes a first device 102, a second device 104, a third device106, and a communication link 108. The first device 102 and the seconddevice 104 may be, for example, dies. The second device 104 may be anapplication-specific integrated circuit (ASIC)). Each device may includemultiple layers of materials (e.g., silicon, oxides, metals, etc.). Thefirst device 102 and the second device 104 are bonded together. A bottomsurface of the first device 102 is bonded to a top surface of the seconddevice 104. The bonding between the first device 102 and the seconddevice 104 may include, for example, thermal compression (also referredto herein as “thermocompression”), eutectic bonding, silicide bonding(which is a bond formed by bringing silicon of one substrate intocontact with metal on a second substrate under sufficient pressure andtemperature to form a metal silicide, creating a mechanical andelectrical bond), or solder bonding. The first device 102 and the seconddevice 104 may have been bonded together as wafers including multipledies that were subsequently diced. The third device 106 may be, forexample, a die (e.g., an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC))or another type of electronic device (e.g., a microprocessor orfield-programmable gate array (FPGA)).

The ultrasound device 100 may be configured to drive ultrasonictransducers to emit pulsed ultrasonic signals into a subject, such as apatient. The pulsed ultrasonic signals may be back-scattered fromstructures in the body, such as blood cells or muscular tissue, toproduce echoes that return to the ultrasonic transducers. These echoesmay then be converted into electrical signals by the transducerelements. The electrical signals representing the received echoes arethen converted into ultrasound data.

The first device 102 includes the ultrasonic transducers. Exampleultrasonic transducers include capacitive micromachined ultrasonictransducers (CMUTs), CMOS ultrasonic transducers (CUTs), andpiezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers (PMUTs). For example,CMUTs and CUTs may include cavities formed in a substrate with amembrane/membranes overlying the cavity. The ultrasonic transducers maybe arranged in an array (e.g., one-dimensional or two-dimensional). Thesecond device 104 includes integrated analog circuitry, which mayinclude integrated analog transmit circuitry and integrated analogreceive circuitry. The integrated analog transmit circuitry may includeone or more pulsers configured to receive waveforms from one or morewaveform generators and output driving signals corresponding to thewaveforms to the ultrasonic transducers. The integrated analog receivecircuitry may include one or more analog amplifiers, one or more analogfilters, analog beamforming circuitry, analog dechirp circuitry, analogquadrature demodulation (AQDM) circuitry, analog time delay circuitry,analog phase shifter circuitry, analog summing circuitry, analog timegain compensation circuitry, analog averaging circuitry, and/or one ormore analog-to-digital converters. The third device 106 includesintegrated digital receive circuitry, which may include, for example,one or more digital filters, digital beamforming circuitry, digitalquadrature demodulation (DQDM) circuitry, averaging circuitry, digitaldechirp circuitry, digital time delay circuitry, digital phase shiftercircuitry, digital summing circuitry, digital multiplying circuitry,requantization circuitry, waveform removal circuitry, image formationcircuitry, backend processing circuitry and/or one or more outputbuffers.

The second device 104 may be implemented in a different technology nodethan the third device 106 is, and the technology node of the thirddevice 106 may be a more advanced technology node with smaller featuresizes than the technology node in which the second device 104 isimplemented. For example, the technology node of the second device 104may be a technology node that provides circuit devices (e.g.,transistors) capable of operating at voltages in the range ofapproximately 80-200 V, such as 80 V, 90 V, 100 V, 200 V, or >200 V. Insome embodiments, the technology node of the second device 104 may be atechnology node that provides circuit devices (e.g., transistors)capable of operating at other voltages, such as voltages in the range ofapproximately 5-30 V or voltages in the range of approximately 30-80V.By operating at such voltages, circuitry in the second device 104 may beable to drive the ultrasonic transducers in the first device 102 to emitacoustic waves having acceptably high pressures. The technology node ofthe second device 104 may be, for example, 65 nm, 80 nm, 90 nm, 110 nm,130 nm, 150 nm, 180 nm, 220 nm, 240 nm, 250 nm, 280 nm, 350 nm, 500nm, >500 nm, or any other suitable technology node.

The technology node of the third device 106, for example, may be onethat provides circuit devices (e.g., transistors) capable of operationat a voltage in the range of approximately 0.45-0.9V, such as 0.9V,0.85V, 0.8V, 0.75V, 0.7V, 0.65V, 0.6V, 0.6V, 0.55V, 0.5V, and 0.45V. Insome embodiments, the technology node of the third device 106 may be onethat provides circuit device capable of operation at a voltage in therange of approximately 1-1.8 V, or approximately 2.5-3.3 V. By operatingat such voltages, power consumption of circuitry in the third device 106may be reduced to an acceptable level. Additionally, the feature size ofdevices provided by the technology node may enable an acceptably highdegree of integration density of circuitry in the third device 106. Thetechnology node of the third device 106 may be, for example, 90 nm, 80nm, 65 nm, 55 nm, 45 nm, 40 nm, 32 nm, 28 nm, 22 nm, 20 nm, 16 nm, 14nm, 10 nm, 7 nm, 5 nm, 3 nm, etc.

The communication link 108 may facilitate communication between thesecond device 104 and the third device 106. For example, the seconddevice 104 may offload data to the third device 106 over thecommunication link 108. To offload data at a high data rate, thecommunication link 108 may include one or more serial-deserializer(SERDES) links. A SERDES link may include SERDES transmit circuitry inthe second device 104, SERDES receive circuitry in the third device 106,and an electrical link trace between the SERDES transmit circuitry andthe SERDES receive circuitry. In some embodiments, the ultrasound device100 may include a PCB to which the first device 102, the second device104, and the third device 106 are coupled. For example, the bonded stackof the first device 102 and second device 104 may be coupled to the PCBat one location, the third device 106 may be coupled to the PCB atanother location, and traces implementing portions of the communicationlink 108 may extend between the two locations. In particular, when aSERDES link is used, the communication link 108 may include a trace onthe PCB electrically connecting the SERDES transmit circuitry in thesecond device 104 to the SERDES receive circuitry in the third device106. In some embodiments, the communication link 108 (e.g., a SERDESlink) may be capable of transmitting data at a rate of approximately 2-5gigabits/second. In some embodiments, there may be more than onecommunication link 108 operating in parallel. In some embodiments, theremay be approximately equal to or between 1-100 parallel SERDEScommunication links 108. In some embodiments, there may be approximatelyequal to or between 1-10,000 parallel SERDES communication links 108.The data offload rate of all the parallel communication links may makethe ultrasound device 100 acoustically limited, meaning that it may notbe necessary to insert undesired time between collection of frames ofultrasound data to offload data from the ultrasound device 100. The dataoffload rate may facilitate high pulse repetition intervals (e.g.,greater than or equal to approximately 10 kHz).

FIG. 2 illustrates an example block diagram of an ultrasound device 200,in accordance with certain embodiments described herein. The ultrasounddevice 200 includes a first device 202, a second device 204, and a thirddevice 206. The ultrasound device 200, the first device 202, the seconddevice 204, and the third device 206 may be examples of the ultrasounddevice 100, the first device 102, the second device 104, and the thirddevice 106, respectively, illustrated in more detail. The ultrasounddevice 200 includes a plurality of elements 458 (which may also beconsidered pixels). While only four elements 458 are shown in FIG. 2, itshould be appreciated that many more elements 458 may be included, suchas hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of elements. Each of theelements 458 includes an ultrasonic transducer 260, a pulser 264, areceive switch 262, an analog processing circuitry 210 block, and ananalog-to-digital converter (ADC) 212. The first device 202 includes theultrasonic transducers 260. The second device 204 includes the pulsers264, the receive switches 262, the analog processing circuitry 210, theADCs 212, and SERDES transmit circuitry 252. The third device 206includes SERDES receive circuitry 254 and digital processing circuitry276. Bonding points 216 electrically connect the ultrasonic transducers260 in the first device 202 to the pulsers 264 and the receive switches262 in the second device 204. A communication link 250 electricallyconnects the SERDES transmit circuitry 252 in the second device 204 tothe SERDES receive circuity 254 in the third device 206.

A pulser 264 may be configured to output a driving signal to anultrasonic transducer 260 through a bonding point 216. The pulser 264may receive a waveform from a waveform generator (not shown) and beconfigured to output a driving signal corresponding to the receivedwaveform. When the pulser 264 is driving the ultrasonic transducer 260(the “transmit phase”), the receive switch 262 may be open such that thedriving signal is not applied to receive circuitry (e.g., the analogprocessing circuitry 210).

The ultrasonic transducer 260 may be configured to emit pulsedultrasonic signals into a subject, such as a patient, in response to thedriving signal received from the pulser 264. The pulsed ultrasonicsignals may be back-scattered from structures in the body, such as bloodcells or muscular tissue, to produce echoes that return to theultrasonic transducer 260. The ultrasonic transducer 260 may beconfigured to convert these echoes into electrical signals. When theultrasonic transducer 260 is receiving the echoes (the “receive phase”),the receive switch 262 may be closed such that the ultrasonic transducer260 may transmit the electrical signals representing the received echoesthrough the bonding point 216 and the receive switch 262 to the analogprocessing circuitry 210.

The analog processing circuitry 210 may include, for example, one ormore analog amplifiers, one or more analog filters, analog beamformingcircuitry, analog dechirp circuitry, analog quadrature demodulation(AQDM) circuitry, analog time delay circuitry, analog phase shiftercircuitry, analog summing circuitry, analog time gain compensationcircuitry, and/or analog averaging circuitry. The analog output of theanalog processing circuitry 210 is outputted to the ADC 212 forconversion to a digital signal. The digital output of the ADC 212 isoutputted to the SERDES transmit circuitry 252.

The SERDES transmit circuitry 252 may be configured to convert paralleldigital output of the ADC 212 to a serial digital stream and to outputthe serial digital stream at a high-speed (e.g., 2-5 gigabits/second)over the communication link 250. As described above, the bonded stack ofthe first device 202 and second device 204 may be coupled to the PCB atone location and the third device 206 may be coupled to the PCB atanother location. The communication link 250 may be, for example, atrace on a PCB that electrically connects the SERDES transmit circuitry252 in the second device 204 to the SERDES receive circuitry 254 in thethird device 206. The SERDES receive circuitry 254 may be configured toconvert the serial digital stream received from the communication link250 to a parallel digital output and to output this parallel digitaloutput to the digital processing circuitry 276. The SERDES transmitcircuitry 252, the SERDES receive circuitry 254, and the communicationlink 250 may be an example of the communication link 108.

In the ultrasound device 200, one block of SERDES transmit circuitry 252receives data from multiple ADC's 212 and is electrically coupled,through the communication link 250, to one block of SERDES receivecircuitry 254 that is coupled to the digital processing circuitry 276.There may be multiple instances of SERDES transmit circuitry 252,communication link 250, and SERDES receive circuitry 254, each receivingdata from multiple ADC's 212. In some embodiments, there may be oneinstance of SERDES transmit circuitry 252, communication link 250, andSERDES receive circuitry 254 per ADC 212 and/or per ultrasonictransducer 260, or more generally, per element 458.

In some embodiments, the SERDES receive circuitry 254 may include amesochronous receiver. In some embodiments, the SERDES receive circuitry254 may include a digital phase-locked loop (PLL), a digital clock anddata recovery circuit, and an equalizer. In some embodiments, the PLL ofthe SERDES receive circuitry 254 may use fast on/off techniques thatallow the PLL to power down and conserve power when the ultrasounddevice is not generating data, and power up to full operating within anacceptably fast period of time when the ultrasound device begins togenerate data again. For further description of fast on/off techniques,see Wei, Da, et al., “A 10-Gb/s/ch, 0.6-pJ/bit/mm Power ScalableRapid-ON/OFF Transceiver for On-Chip Energy Proportional Interconnects,”IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits 53.3 (2018): 873-883. In someembodiments, implementing the third device in an advanced technologynode (e.g., 90 nm, 80 nm, 65 nm, 55 nm, 45 nm, 40 nm, 32 nm, 28 nm, 22nm, 20 nm, 16 nm, 14 nm, 10 nm, 7 nm, 5 nm, 3 nm, etc.) may facilitatethe SERDES receive circuitry 254 operating at a high data rate (e.g.,2-5 gigabits/second).

The digital processing circuitry 276 may include, for example, one ormore digital filters, digital beamforming circuitry, digital quadraturedemodulation (DQDM) circuitry, averaging circuitry, digital dechirpcircuitry, digital time delay circuitry, digital phase shiftercircuitry, digital summing circuitry, digital multiplying circuitry,requantization circuitry, waveform removal circuitry, image formationcircuitry, backend processing circuitry and/or one or more outputbuffers. The image formation circuitry in the digital processingcircuitry 276 may be configured to perform apodization, back projectionand/or fast hierarchy back projection, interpolation range migration(e.g., Stolt interpolation) or other Fourier resampling techniques,dynamic focusing techniques, delay and sum techniques, tomographicreconstruction techniques, doppler calculation, frequency and spatialcompounding, and/or low and high-pass filtering, etc.

The second device 204 additionally includes power circuitry 248,communication circuitry 222, clocking circuitry 224, control circuitry226, and sequencing circuitry 228. The communication circuitry 222 inthe second device 204 may be configured to provide communication betweenthe second device 204 and the third device 206 over the communicationlink 270 (or more than one communication links 270). The communicationlink 270 may be, for example, one or more traces on a PCB thatelectrically connect the second device 204 to the third device 206. Thecommunication circuitry 222 may facilitate communication of signals fromany circuitry on the second device 204 to the third device 206 and/orcommunication of signals from any circuitry on the third device 206 tothe second device 204 (aside from communication facilitated by theSERDES transmit circuitry 252, the communication links 250, and theSERDES receive circuitry 254).

The clocking circuitry 224 in the second device 204 may be configured togenerate some or all of the clocks used in the second device 204 and/orthe third device 206. In some embodiments, the clocking circuitry 224may receive a high-speed clock (e.g., a 1.5625 GHz or a 2.5 GHz clock)from an external source that the clocking circuitry 224 may feed tovarious circuit components of the ultrasound device 200. In someembodiments, the clocking circuitry 224 may divide and/or multiply thereceived high-speed clock to produce clocks of different frequencies(e.g., 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 100 MHz, or 200 MHz) that the clocking circuitry224 may feed to various components of the ultrasound device 200. In someembodiments, the clocking circuitry 224 may separately receive two ormore clocks of different frequencies, such as the frequencies describedabove.

The control circuitry 226 in the second device 204 may be configured tocontrol various circuit components in the second device 204. Forexample, the control circuitry 226 may control and/or parameterize thepulsers 264, the receive switches 262, the analog processing circuitry210, the ADCs 212, the SERDES transmit circuitry 252, the powercircuitry 248, the communication circuitry 222, the clocking circuitry224, the sequencing circuitry 228, digital waveform generators, delaymeshes, and/or time-gain compensation circuitry (the latter three ofwhich are not shown in FIG. 2). The control circuitry 226 may also beconfigured to control any circuitry on the third device 206.

The sequencing circuitry 228 in the second device 204 may be configuredto coordinate various circuit components on the second device 204 thatmay or may not be digitally parameterized. In some embodiments, thesequencing circuitry 228 may control the timing and ordering ofparameter changes in the second device 204 and/or the third device 206,control triggering of transmit and receive events, and control data flow(e.g., from the second device 204 to the third device 206). In someembodiments, the sequencing circuitry 228 may control execution of animaging sequence which may be specific to the selected imaging mode,preset, and user settings. In some embodiments, the sequencing circuitry228 in the second device 204 may be configured as a master sequencerthat triggers events on sequencing circuitry 236 in the third device 206that is configured as a slave sequencer and has been digitallyparameterized. In some embodiments, the sequencing circuitry 236 in thethird device 206 is configured as a master sequencer that triggersevents on the sequencing circuitry 228 in the second device 204 that isconfigured as a slave sequencer and has been digitally parameterized. Insome embodiments, the sequencing circuitry 228 in the second device 204is configured to control parameterized circuit components on both thesecond device 204 and the third device 206. In some embodiments, thesequencing circuitry 228 in the second device 204 and the sequencingcircuitry 236 in the third device 206 may operate in synchronization byusing a clock derived from the same source (e.g., provided by theclocking circuitry).

The power circuitry 248 in the second device 204 may include low dropoutregulators, switching power supplies, and/or DC-DC converters to supplythe first device 202, the second device 204, and/or the third device206. In some embodiments, the power circuitry 248 may includemulti-level pulsers and/or charge recycling circuitry. For furtherdescription of multi-level pulsers and charge recycling circuitry, seeU.S. Pat. No. 9,492,144 titled “MULTI-LEVEL PULSER AND RELATED APPARATUSAND METHODS,” granted on Nov. 15, 2016, and U.S. patent application Ser.No. 15/087,914 titled “MULTILEVEL BIPOLAR PULSER,” issued as U.S. Pat.No. 10,082,565, each of which is assigned to the assignee of the instantapplication which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

The third device 206 additionally includes communication circuitry 230,clocking circuitry 232, control circuitry 234, sequencing circuitry 236,peripheral management circuitry 238, memory 240, power circuitry 272,processing circuitry 256, and monitoring circuitry 274. Thecommunication circuitry 230 in the third device 206 may be configured toprovide communication between the third device 206 and the second device204 over the communication link 270 (or more than one communicationlinks 270). The communication circuitry 230 may facilitate communicationof signals from any circuitry on the third device 206 to the seconddevice 204 and/or communication of signals from any circuitry on thesecond device 204 to the third device 206.

The clocking circuitry 232 in the third device 206 may be configured togenerate some or all of the clocks used in the third device 206 and/orthe second device 204. In some embodiments, the clocking circuitry 232may receive a high-speed clock (e.g., a 1.5625 GHz or a 2.5 GHz clock)that the clocking circuitry 232 may feed to various circuit componentsof the ultrasound device 200. In some embodiments, the clockingcircuitry 232 may divide and/or multiply the received high-speed clockto produce clocks of different frequencies (e.g., 20 MHz, 40 MHz, 100MHz, or 200 MHz) that the clocking circuitry 232 may feed to variouscomponents. In some embodiments, the clocking circuitry 232 mayseparately receive two or more clocks of different frequencies, such asthe frequencies described above.

The control circuitry 234 in the third device 206 may be configured tocontrol various circuit components in the third device 206. For example,the control circuitry 234 may control and/or parameterize the SERDESreceive circuitry 254, the digital processing circuitry 276, thecommunication circuitry 230, the clocking circuitry 232, the sequencingcircuitry 236, the peripheral management circuitry 238, the memory 240,the power circuitry 272, and the processing circuitry 256. The controlcircuitry 234 may also be configured to control any circuitry on thesecond device 204.

The sequencing circuitry 236 in the third device 206 may be configuredto coordinate various circuit components on the third device 206 thatmay or may not be digitally parameterized. In some embodiments, thesequencing circuitry 236 in the third device 206 is configured as amaster sequencer that triggers events on the sequencing circuitry 228 inthe second device 204 that has been digitally parameterized. In someembodiments, the sequencing circuitry 228 in the second device 204 isconfigured as a master sequencer that triggers events on the sequencingcircuitry 236 in the second device 204 that is configured as a slavesequencer and has been digitally parameterized. In some embodiments, thesequencing circuitry 236 in the third device 206 is configured tocontrol parameterized circuit components on both the second device 204and the third device 206. In some embodiments, the sequencing circuitry236 in the third device 206 and the sequencing circuitry 228 in thesecond device 204 may operate in synchronization by using a clockderived from the same source (e.g., provided by the clocking circuitry).

The peripheral management circuitry 238 may be configured to generate ahigh-speed serial output data stream. For example, the peripheralmanagement circuitry 238 may be a Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0, 3.0,or 3.1 module. The peripheral management circuitry 238 may additionallyor alternatively be configured to allow an external microprocessor tocontrol various circuit components of the ultrasound device 200 over aUSB connection. As another example, the peripheral management circuitry238 may include a WiFi module or a module for controlling another typeof peripheral. In some embodiments, this high-speed serial output datastream may be outputted to an external device.

The memory 240 may be configured to buffer and/or store digitized imagedata (e.g., image data produced by imaging formation circuitry and/orother circuitry in the digital processing circuitry 276). For example,the memory 240 may be configured to enable the ultrasound device 200 toretrieve image data in the absence of a wireless connection to a remoteserver storing the image data. Furthermore, when a wireless connectionto a remote server is available, the memory 240 may also be configuredto provide support for wireless connectivity conditions such as lossychannels, intermittent connectivity, and lower data rates, for example.In addition to storing digitized image data, the memory 240 may also beconfigured to store timing and control parameters for synchronizing andcoordinating operation of elements in the ultrasound device 200.

The power circuitry 272 may include power supply amplifiers forsupplying power to the third device 206.

The processing circuitry 256, which may be in the form of one or moreembedded processors, may be configured to perform processing functions.In some embodiments, the processing circuitry 256 may be configured toperform sequencing functions, either for the second device 204 or forthe third device 206. For example, the processing circuitry 256 maycontrol the timing and ordering of parameter changes in the seconddevice 204 and/or the third device 206, control triggering of transmitand receive events, and/or control data flow (e.g., from the seconddevice 204 to the third device 206). In some embodiments, the processingcircuitry 256 may control execution of an imaging sequence which may bespecific to the selected imaging mode, preset, and user settings. Insome embodiments, the processing circuitry 256 may perform externalsystem control, such as controlling the peripheral management circuitry238, the processing circuitry 256, controlling power sequencing (e.g.,for the power circuitry 248 and/or the power circuitry 272), andinterfacing with the monitoring circuitry 274. In some embodiments, theprocessing circuitry 256 may perform internal system control, such asconfiguring data flow within the chip (e.g., from the second device 204to the third device 206), calculating or controlling the calculation ofprocessing and image formation parameters (e.g., for image formationcircuitry), controlling on chip clocking (e.g., for the clockingcircuitry 224 and/or the clocking circuitry 232), and/or controllingpower (e.g., for the power circuitry 248 and/or the power circuitry272). The processing circuitry 256 may be configured to performfunctions described above as being performed by other components of theultrasound device 200, and in some embodiments certain componentsdescribed herein may be absent if their functions are performed by theprocessing circuitry 256.

The monitoring circuitry 274 may include, but is not limited to,temperature monitoring circuitry (e.g., thermistors), power measurementcircuitry (e.g., voltage and current sensors), nine-axis motioncircuitry (e.g., gyroscopes, accelerometers, compasses), batterymonitoring circuitry (e.g., coulomb counters), and/or circuitry checkingfor status or exception conditions of other on-board circuits (e.g.,power controllers, protection circuitry, etc.).

It should be understood that there may be many more instances of eachcomponent shown in FIG. 2. For example, there may be hundreds,thousands, or tens of thousands of ultrasonic transducers 260, pulsers264, receive switches 262, analog processing circuitry 210 blocks,SERDES transmit circuitry 252 blocks, SERDES receive circuitry 254blocks, and/or digital processing circuitry 276 blocks. Additionally, itshould be understood that certain components shown in FIG. 2 may receivesignals from more components than shown or transmit signals to morecomponents than shown (e.g., in a multiplexed fashion, or afteraveraging). For example, a given pulser 264 may output signals to one ormore ultrasonic transducers 260, a given receive switch 262 may receivesignals from one or more ultrasonic transducers 260, a given block ofanalog processing circuitry 210 may receive signals from one or morereceive switches 262, a given ADC 212 may receive signals from one ormore blocks of analog processing circuitry 210, a given block of SERDEStransmit circuitry 252 may receive signals from one or more ADCs 212. Insome embodiments, a given ultrasound element may have an ultrasonictransducer 260 and a dedicated pulser 264, receive switch 262, analogprocessing circuitry 210 block, ADC 212, and/or SERDES transmitcircuitry 252 block. It should also be understood that certainembodiments of an ultrasound device may have more or fewer componentsthan shown in FIG. 2.

For further description of the circuit components of the ultrasounddevice 200, see U.S. Pat. No. 9,521,991 titled “MONOLITHIC ULTRASONICIMAGING DEVICES, SYSTEMS, AND METHODS,” granted on Dec. 20, 2016 (andassigned to the assignee of the instant application), which isincorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of an ultrasound device 300 inaccordance with certain embodiments described herein. The ultrasounddevice includes a first device 302, a second device 304, and a thirddevice 306. The first device 302, the second device 304, and the thirddevice 306 may be, for example, dies (e.g., application-specificintegrated circuits (ASICs)) or wafers that are diced, and each devicemay include multiple layers of materials (e.g., silicon, oxides, metals,etc.). The bottom surface of the first device 302 is bonded to the topsurface of the second device 304. The bottom surface of the seconddevice 304 is bonded to the top surface of the third device 306. Thebonding between the first device 302 and the second device 304 and thebonding between the second device 304 and the third device 306 mayinclude, for example, thermal compression (also referred to herein as“thermocompression”), eutectic bonding, silicide bonding (which is abond formed by bringing silicon of one substrate into contact with metalon a second substrate under sufficient pressure and temperature to forma metal silicide, creating a mechanical and electrical bond), or solderbonding.

The ultrasound device 300 is configured to drive ultrasonic transducersto emit pulsed ultrasonic signals into a subject, such as a patient. Thepulsed ultrasonic signals may be back-scattered from structures in thebody, such as blood cells or muscular tissue, to produce echoes thatreturn to the ultrasonic transducers. These echoes may then be convertedinto electrical signals by the transducer elements. The electricalsignals representing the received echoes are then converted intoultrasound data.

The first device 302 includes the ultrasonic transducers. Exampleultrasonic transducers include capacitive micromachined ultrasonictransducers (CMUTs), CMOS ultrasonic transducers (CUTs), andpiezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducers (PMUTs). For example,CMUTs and CUTs may include cavities formed in a substrate with amembrane/membranes overlying the cavity. The ultrasonic transducers maybe arranged in an array (e.g., one-dimensional or two-dimensional). Thesecond device 304 includes integrated transmit circuitry, which mayinclude one or more pulsers configured to receive waveforms from one ormore waveform generators and output driving signals corresponding to thewaveforms to the ultrasonic transducers. The third device includesintegrated receive circuitry, which may include one or more analogamplifiers, one or more analog filters, analog beamforming circuitry,analog dechirp circuitry, analog quadrature demodulation (AQDM)circuitry, analog time delay circuitry, analog phase shifter circuitry,analog summing circuitry, analog time gain compensation circuitry,analog averaging circuitry, analog-to-digital converters, digitalfilters, digital beamforming circuitry, digital quadrature demodulation(DQDM) circuitry, averaging circuitry, digital dechirp circuitry,digital time delay circuitry, digital phase shifter circuitry, digitalsumming circuitry, digital multiplying circuitry, requantizationcircuitry, waveform removal circuitry, image formation circuitry,backend processing circuitry, and/or one or more output buffers.

The second device 304 may be implemented in a different technology nodethan the third device 306 is, and the technology node of the thirddevice 306 may be a more advanced (smaller) technology node with smallerfeature sizes than the technology node in which the second device 304 isimplemented. For example, the technology node of the second device 304may be a technology node that provides circuit devices (e.g.,transistors) capable of operating at voltages in the range ofapproximately 80-200 V, such as 80 V, 90 V, 100 V, 200 V, or >200 V. Insome embodiments, the technology node of the second device 304 may be atechnology node that provides circuit devices (e.g., transistors)capable of operating at other voltages, such as voltages in the range ofapproximately 5-30 V or voltages in the range of approximately 30-80V.By operating at such voltages, circuitry in the second device 304 may beable to drive the ultrasonic transducers in the first device 302 to emitacoustic waves having acceptably high pressures. The technology node ofthe second device 304 may be, for example, 65 nm, 80 nm, 90 nm, 110 nm,130 nm, 150 nm, 180 nm, 220 nm, 240 nm, 250 nm, 280 nm, 350 nm, 500nm, >500 nm, or any other suitable technology node.

The technology node of the third device 306, for example, may be onethat provides circuit device (e.g., transistors) capable of operation ata voltage in the range of approximately 0.45-0.9V, such as 0.9V, 0.85V,0.8V, 0.75V, 0.7V, 0.65V, 0.6V, 0.6V, 0.55V, 0.5V, and 0.45V. In someembodiments, the technology node of the third device 306 may be one thatprovides circuit device capable of operation at a voltage in the rangeof approximately 1-1.8 V, or approximately 2.5-3.3 V. By operating atsuch voltages, power consumption of circuitry in the third device 306may be reduced to an acceptable level. Compared with the ultrasounddevice 100, including integrated analog receive circuitry in the thirddevice 306 rather than the second device 304 may further reduce powerconsumption. Additionally, the feature size of devices provided by thetechnology node may enable an acceptably high degree of integrationdensity of circuitry in the third device 306. The technology node of thethird device 306 may be, for example, 90 nm, 80 nm, 65 nm, 55 nm, 45 nm,40 nm, 32 nm, 28 nm, 22 nm, 20 nm, 16 nm, 14 nm, 10 nm, 7 nm, 5 nm, 3nm, etc.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example block diagram of an ultrasound device 400in accordance with certain embodiments described herein. The ultrasounddevice 400 includes a first device 402, a second device 404, and a thirddevice 406. The ultrasound device 400, the first device 402, the seconddevice 404, and the third device 406 may be examples of the ultrasounddevice 300, the first device 302, the second device 304, and the thirddevice 306, respectively, illustrated in more detail. The ultrasounddevice 400 includes a plurality of elements 458 (which may also beconsidered pixels). While only four elements 458 are shown in FIG. 4, itshould be appreciated that many more elements 458 may be included, suchas hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of elements. Each of theelements 458 includes an ultrasonic transducer 260, a pulser 264, areceive switch 262, a through-silicon via (TSV) 408, an analogprocessing circuitry 210 block, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC)212, and a digital processing circuitry 414 block. The first device 402includes the ultrasonic transducers 260. The second device 404 includesthe pulsers 264, the receive switches 262, and the TSVs 408. The thirddevice 406 includes the analog processing circuitry 210, the ADCs 212,the digital processing circuitry 414, and multiplexed digital processingcircuitry 220. Bonding points 216 electrically connect the ultrasonictransducers 260 in the first device 402 to the pulsers 264 and thereceive switches 262 in the second device 404. Bonding points 418electrically connect the TSVs 408 in the second device 404 to the analogprocessing circuitry 210 in the third device 406.

Further description of the ultrasonic transducers 260, the pulsers 264,and the receive switches 262 may be found with reference to FIG. 2. Incontrast to the ultrasonic device 200, when the ultrasonic transducer260 is receiving the echoes (the “receive phase”), the ultrasonictransducer 260 may transmit the electrical signals representing thereceived echoes to the analog processing circuitry 210 through thebonding point 216, the receive switch 262, the TSV 408, and the bondingpoint 418.

The TSV 408 is a via that passes through the second device 404 andfacilitates transmission of the electrical signals representing thereceived echoes from the ultrasonic transducer 260 in the first device402, through the second device 404, and to the analog processingcircuitry 210 in the third device 406 along a low-resistance path.Because the electrical signals representing the received echoes may berelatively weak (e.g., on the order of millivolts or microvolts), it maybe especially desirable to transmit the electrical signals along alow-resistance path to avoid attenuation. The TSV 408 may be helpful intransmitting these relatively weak signals through the second device 404with acceptably low attenuation. Additionally, the TSV 408 may behelpful in transmitting these signals with low parasitic capacitancewhich may increase signal-to-noise ratio and bandwidth.

Further description of the analog processing circuitry 210 and the ADC212 may be found with reference to FIG. 2. The digital output of the ADC212 is sent to the digital processing circuitry 414. The digitalprocessing circuitry 414 may include, for example, one or more digitalfilters, digital beamforming circuitry, digital quadrature demodulation(DQDM) circuitry, averaging circuitry, digital dechirp circuitry,digital time delay circuitry, digital phase shifter circuitry, digitalsumming circuitry, digital multiplying circuitry, and/or an outputbuffer. The digital output of each digital processing circuitry 414 fromeach element 458 is sent to the multiplexed digital processing circuitry220, which processes the digital output from each element 458 in amultiplexed fashion. The multiplexed digital processing circuitry 220may include a combination of, for example, requantization circuitry,waveform removal circuitry, image formation circuitry, and backendprocessing circuitry. The image formation circuitry in the digitalprocessing circuitry 414 may be configured to perform apodization, backprojection and/or fast hierarchy back projection, interpolation rangemigration (e.g., Stolt interpolation) or other Fourier resamplingtechniques, dynamic focusing techniques, and/or delay and sumtechniques, tomographic reconstruction techniques, etc.

The second device 404 additionally includes power circuitry 248,communication circuitry 222, clocking circuitry 224, control circuitry226, and/or sequencing circuitry 228. The third device 406 additionallyincludes communication circuitry 230, clocking circuitry 232, controlcircuitry 234, sequencing circuitry 236, peripheral management circuitry238, memory 240, power circuitry 272, processing circuitry 256, andmonitoring circuitry 274. The communication circuitry 222 maycommunicate with the communication circuitry 230 through a TSV 408 and abonding point 418. Further description of these components may be foundwith reference to FIG. 2.

As can be seen in FIG. 4, for a given element 458, a single ultrasonictransducer 260 in the first device 402 is electrically connected to asingle TSV 408 in the second device 404, and the single TSV 408 iselectrically connected to a single pulser 264 in the second device 404and to a single receive circuitry block (i.e., a single analogprocessing circuitry 210, ADC 212, and digital processing circuitry 414)in the third device 406. This in-situ, element-matched electricalconnection between the first device 402, the second device 404, and thethird device 406 facilitates tight integration between the three devicesin order to pass the weak analog electrical signals from the firstdevice 402, through the second device 404, and to the third device 406without unacceptable attenuation. In some embodiments, multiple TSVs 408and bonding points 418 may be multiplexed to a single receive circuitryblock (i.e., a single analog processing circuitry 210, ADC 212, anddigital processing circuitry 414). The signals transmitted through theTSVs 408 may each be connected to the receive circuitry block, one afteranother.

It should be appreciated from FIG. 4 that in some embodiments, there maybe one TSV 408 per ultrasonic transducer. Additionally, it should beappreciated from FIG. 4 that in some embodiments, there may be one TSV408 per pulser 264. In some embodiments, there may be one TSV 408 perinstance of transmit circuitry. For example, one TSV 408 may bemultiplexed to multiple pulsers 264.

It should be understood that there may be many more instances of eachcomponent shown in FIG. 4. For example, there may be hundreds,thousands, or tens of thousands of ultrasonic transducers 260, pulsers264, receive switches 262, analog processing circuitry 210 blocks,digital processing circuitry 414 blocks, and multiplexed digitalprocessing 220 blocks. Additionally, it should be understood thatcertain components shown in FIG. 4 may receive signals from morecomponents than shown or transmit signals to more components than shown(e.g., in a multiplexed fashion, or after averaging). For example, agiven pulser 264 may output signals to one or more ultrasonictransducers 260, a given receive switch 262 may receive signals from oneor more ultrasonic transducers 260, a given TSV 408 may receive signalsfrom one or more receive switches 262, a given block of analogprocessing circuitry 210 may receive signals from one or more TSVs 408,a given ADC 212 may receive signals from one or more blocks of analogprocessing circuitry 210, and a given block of digital processingcircuitry 414 may receive signals from one or more ADCs 212. It shouldalso be understood that certain embodiments of an ultrasound device mayhave more or fewer components than shown in FIG. 4.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example block diagram of an ultrasound device 500in accordance with certain embodiments described herein. The ultrasounddevice 500 includes a first device 502, a second device 504, and a thirddevice 506. The ultrasound device 500, the first device 502, the seconddevice 504, and the third device 506 may be examples of the ultrasounddevice 300, the first device 302, the second device 304, and the thirddevice 306, respectively, illustrated in more detail. The ultrasounddevice 500 differs from the ultrasound device 400 in that the ultrasounddevice 500 includes a preamplifier 542 between the receive switch 262and the TSV 408.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example block diagram of an ultrasound device 600in accordance with certain embodiments described herein. The ultrasounddevice 600 includes a first device 602, a second device 604, and a thirddevice 606. The ultrasound device 600, the first device 602, the seconddevice 604, and the third device 606 may be examples of the ultrasounddevice 300, the first device 302, the second device 304, and the thirddevice 306, respectively, illustrated in more detail. The ultrasounddevice 600 differs from the ultrasound device 500 in that ultrasounddevice 600 includes time-gain compensation (TGC) circuitry 644 betweenthe preamplifier 542 and the TSV 408.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example block diagram of an ultrasound device 700in accordance with certain embodiments described herein. The ultrasounddevice 700 includes a first device 702, a second device 704, and a thirddevice 706. The ultrasound device 700, the first device 702, the seconddevice 704, and the third device 706 may be examples of the ultrasounddevice 300, the first device 302, the second device 304, and the thirddevice 306, respectively, illustrated in more detail. The ultrasounddevice 700 differs from the ultrasound device 600 in that the ultrasounddevice 700 includes analog beamforming circuitry 746 between the TGCcircuitry 644 and the TSV 408.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example block diagram of an ultrasound device 800in accordance with certain embodiments described herein. The ultrasounddevice 800 includes a first device 802, a second device 804, and a thirddevice 806. The ultrasound device 800 can be considered a hybrid of theultrasound device 200 and the ultrasound device 400. Like the ultrasounddevice 200, in the ultrasound device 800, the second device 804 includesthe pulsers 264, the receive switches 262, the analog processingcircuitry 210, the ADCs 212, and the SERDES transmit circuitry 252, andthe third device 806 includes SERDES receive circuitry 254 and digitalprocessing circuitry 220. Like the ultrasound device 400, the thirddevice 806 is bonded to the second device 804 at the bonding points 418and the TSVs 408 facilitate transmission of electrical signals from thesecond device 804 to the third device 806. In particular, the TSV 408facilitates transmission of electrical signals from the SERDES transmitcircuitry 252 to the SERDES receive circuitry 254. The ultrasound device800 can thus be considered a three-device stacked version of theultrasound device 200, where communication between the second device 804and the third device 806 occurs over the TSV's 408, and thecommunication occurs at high-speed due to the SERDES transmit circuitry252 and the SERDES receive circuitry 254.

In the ultrasound device 800, one block of SERDES transmit circuitry 252receives data from multiple ADC's 212 and is electrically coupled,through a TSV 408 and a bonding point to 418, to one block of SERDESreceive circuitry 254 that is coupled to the digital processingcircuitry 276. There may be multiple instances of SERDES transmitcircuitry 252, TSV 408, bonding point 418, and SERDES receive circuitry254, each receiving data from multiple ADC's 212. In some embodiments,there may be one instance of SERDES transmit circuitry 252, TSV 408,bonding point 418, and SERDES receive circuitry 254 per ADC 212 and/orper ultrasonic transducer 260, or more generally, per element 458.

It should be appreciated that in some embodiments, any of the ultrasounddevices 200, 400, 500, 600, 700, and 800 may incorporate combinations offeatures shown with reference to other ultrasound devices. For example,the ultrasound device 400 may include the time-gain compensationcircuitry 644 between the receive switch 262 and the TSV 408 but not thepreamplifier 542. As another example, the ultrasound device 400 mayinclude the time-gain compensation circuitry 644 and the analogbeamforming circuitry 746 between the receive switch 262 and the TSV 408but not the preamplifier 542. As another example, the ultrasound device400 may include the preamplifier 542 and the analog beamformingcircuitry 746 between the receive switch 262 and the TSV 408 but not thetime-gain compensation circuitry 542. As another example, the ultrasounddevice 800 may include any of the preamplifier 542, the time-gaincompensation circuitry 644, and/or the analog beamforming circuitry 746.It should also be understood that certain embodiments may have more orfewer components than shown in the figures.

FIG. 9 illustrates a paradigm for an ultrasound device, in accordancewith certain embodiments described herein. FIG. 9 show portions of afirst device 902 and a second device 904, or portions thereof. The firstdevice 902 includes an ultrasonic transducer 266 and an ultrasonictransducer 260. The second device 904 includes a pulser 264, a bondingpoint 268, and a bonding point 216. In FIG. 9, the pulser 264 isconfigured to output a driving signal to the ultrasonic transducer 266through the bonding point 268 during the transmit phase. The bondingpoint 268 electrically connects the ultrasonic transducer 266 in thefirst device 902 to the pulser 264 in the second device 304. Theultrasonic transducer 266 may be configured to emit pulsed ultrasonicsignals into a patient and the ultrasonic transducer 260 may beconfigured to convert the received echoes into electrical signals duringthe receive phase and transmit the electrical signals representing thereceived echoes to the second device 904 through the bonding point 216.In FIG. 9, the bonding point 216 electrically connects the ultrasonictransducer 260 in the first device 902 to the second device 904. Becausethe ultrasonic transducer 266 performs transmit operations and theultrasonic transducer 260 performs receive operations, the receiveswitch 262 is not needed. Any of the embodiments of the ultrasounddevices 200, 400, 500, 600, 700, or 800 may incorporate the paradigm ofFIG. 9 that includes two ultrasonic transducers 260 and 266, two bondingpoints 216 and 268, and no receive switch 262. The circuitry in thesecond device 904 to which the bonding point 216 is connected may dependon the ultrasound device (e.g., the TSV 408 in the ultrasound device400; the preamplifier 542 in the ultrasound devices 500, 600, and 700;or the analog processing circuitry 210 in the ultrasound devices 200 and800).

FIGS. 10-32 illustrate example cross-sections of the ultrasound device300 during a fabrication sequence for forming the ultrasound device 300in accordance with certain embodiments described herein. It will beappreciated that the fabrication sequence shown is not limiting, andsome embodiments may include additional steps and/or omit certain shownsteps. As shown in FIG. 10, the first device 302 begins as asilicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer 1000 that includes a handle layer 1002(e.g., a silicon handle layer), a buried oxide (BOX) layer 1004, and asilicon device layer 1108. An oxide layer 1005 is provided on thebackside of the handle layer 1002, but may be optional in someembodiments.

The silicon device layer 1108 may be formed of single crystal siliconand may be doped in some embodiments. In some embodiments, the silicondevice layer 1108 may be highly doped P-type, although N-type doping mayalternatively be used. When doping is used, the doping may be uniform ormay be patterned (e.g., by implanting in patterned regions). The silicondevice layer 1108 may already be doped when the SOI wafer 1000 isprocured, or may be doped by ion implantation, as the manner of dopingis not limiting. In some embodiments, the silicon device layer 1108 maybe formed of polysilicon or amorphous silicon. In either case thesilicon device layer 1108 may be doped or undoped.

As shown in FIG. 11, an oxide layer 1112 is formed on the SOI wafer1000. The oxide layer 1112 is used to at least partially define thecavity/cavities of the ultrasonic transducers, and thus may have anysuitable thickness to provide for a desired cavity depth. The oxidelayer 1112 may be a thermal silicon oxide, but it should be appreciatedthat oxides other than thermal oxide may alternatively be used.

As shown in FIG. 12, the oxide layer 1112 is patterned to form a cavity1106, using any suitable technique (e.g., using a suitable etch). Inthis non-limiting embodiment, the cavity 1106 extends to the surface ofthe silicon device layer 1108, although in alternative embodiments thecavity 1106 may not extend to the surface of the silicon device layer1108. In some embodiments, the oxide layer 1112 may be etched to thesurface of the silicon device layer 1108 and then an additional layer ofoxide (e.g., thermal silicon oxide) may be formed such that the cavity1106 is defined by a layer of oxide. In some embodiments, the cavity1106 may extend into the silicon device layer 1108. Also, in someembodiments structures such as isolation posts can be formed within thecavity 1106.

Any suitable number and configuration of cavities 1106 may be formed, asthe aspects of the application are not limited in this respect. Thus,while only one cavity 1106 is illustrated in the non-limitingcross-sectional view of FIG. 12, it should be appreciated that many moremay be formed in some embodiments. For example, an array of cavities1106 may include hundreds of cavities, thousands of cavities, tens ofthousands of cavities, or more to form an ultrasonic transducer array ofa desired size.

The cavity 1106 may take one of various shapes (viewed from a top side)to provide a desired membrane shape when the ultrasonic transducers areultimately formed. For example, the cavity 1106 may have a circularcontour or a multi-sided contour (e.g., a rectangular contour, ahexagonal contour, an octagonal contour).

FIG. 13 illustrates the SOI wafer 1000 and a silicon wafer 1008. Thesilicon wafer 1008 includes a silicon layer 1010, an oxide layer 1114,and an oxide layer 1014.

As shown in FIG. 14, the SOI wafer 1000 is bonded to the silicon wafer1008. The bonding may be performed at a low temperature (e.g., a fusionbond below 450° C.), but may be followed by an anneal at a hightemperature (e.g., at greater than 500° C.) to ensure sufficient bondstrength. In the embodiment shown, the bond between the SOI wafer 1000and the silicon wafer 1008 is an SiO₂—SiO₂ bond between the oxide layer1112 and the oxide layer 1014. The combination of the oxide layer 1112and the oxide layer 1014 is shown as oxide layer 1116.

As shown in FIG. 15, the oxide layer 1114 is removed and the siliconlayer 1010 is thinned, in any suitable manner. For example, grinding,etching, or any other suitable technique or combination of techniquesmay be used. As a result, the layers remaining from the silicon wafer1008 include the silicon layer 1010 and the oxide layer 1014. Theselayers may be thin (e.g., 40 microns, 30 microns, 20 microns, 10microns, 5 microns, 2.5 microns, 2 microns, 1 micron, or less, includingany range or value within the range less than 40 microns). However,because they are bonded to the SOI wafer 1000 with its correspondinghandle layer 1002, sufficient structural integrity may be retained forthis processing step and for further processing steps.

In some embodiments, it may be desirable to electrically isolate one ormore ultrasonic transducers of the first device 302. Thus, as shown inFIG. 16, isolation trenches 1018 are formed in the silicon layer 1010.In the illustrated embodiment, the isolation trenches 1018 extend from abackside of the silicon layer 1010 to the oxide layer 1116, and arenarrower (in the direction of left to right in the figure) than theportion(s) of the overlying oxide layer 1116 to which each isolationtrench 1018 makes contact to prevent inadvertently punching through theoxide layer 1116 into the cavity 1106. Thus, the isolation trenches 1018do not impact the structural integrity of the cavity 1106. However,alternative configurations are possible.

FIG. 17 illustrates that the isolation trenches 1018 are filled with aninsulating material 1020 (e.g., thermal silicon oxide in combinationwith undoped polysilicon) using any suitable technique (e.g., a suitabledeposition). It should be noted that in the embodiment illustrated, theinsulating material 1020 completely fills the isolation trenches 1018and does not simply line the isolation trenches 1018, which may furthercontribute to the structural integrity of the device at this stage,rendering it more suitable for further processing.

As shown in FIG. 18, the insulating material 1020 is patterned (usingany suitable etch technique) in preparation for forming bondinglocations for later bonding of the first device 302 with the seconddevice 304.

A bonding structure 1026 is then formed on the first device 302 inpreparation for bonding the first device 302 with the second device 304,as shown in FIG. 19. The type of material included in the bondingstructure 1026 may depend on the type of bond to be formed. For example,the bonding structure 1026 may include a metal suitable forthermocompression bonding, eutectic bonding, or silicide bonding. Insome embodiments, the bonding structure 1026 may include a conductivematerial so that electrical signals may be communicated between thefirst device 302 and the second device 304. For example, in someembodiments the bonding structure 1026 may include gold and may beformed by electroplating. In some embodiments, materials and techniquesused for wafer level packaging may be applied in the context of bondingthe first device 302 with the second device 304. Thus, for example,stacks of metals selected to provide desirable adhesion, interdiffusionbarrier functionality, and high bonding quality may be used, and thebonding structure 1026 may include such stacks of metals. In FIG. 19,the bonding structure 1026 is shown adhered to an adhesion structure1024 on the silicon layer 1010.

As shown in FIG. 20, the second device 304 includes a base layer (e.g.,a bulk silicon wafer) 1118, an insulating layer 1120, metallization1122, a via 1124, metallization 1126, a via 1128, and a TSV 408. The via1124 electrically connects the metallization 1122 to the metallization1126. The via 1128 electrically connects the metallization 1126 to theTSV 408. An insulating layer 1028 is formed on the backside of the baselayer 1118. The metallization 1122 may be formed of aluminum, copper, orany other suitable metallization material, and may represent at leastpart of an integrated circuit formed in the second device 304. Forexample, the metallization 1122 and the metallization 1126 may serve asrouting layers, may be patterned to form one or more electrodes, or maybe used for other functions. In practice, the second device 304 mayinclude more than two metallization layers and/or post-processedredistribution layers, but for simplicity only two metallizations areillustrated. The TSV 408 may be formed of a metal, such as copper, dopedpolysilicon, or tungsten. The second device 304 may be fabricated at acommercial foundry.

As shown in FIG. 21, layers 1030 and 1032 are formed on the seconddevice 304. The layer 1030 may be, for example, a nitride layer and maybe formed by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). Thelayer 1032 may be an oxide layer, for example formed by PECVD of oxide.

In FIG. 22, openings 1034 are formed from the layer 1032 to themetallization 1122. Such openings are made in preparation for formingbonding points.

In FIG. 23, a bonding structure 1036 is formed on the second device 304(by suitable deposition and patterning) at a location for bonding thefirst device 302 with the second device 304. The bonding structure 1036is shown adhered to adhesion structures 1040 and 1022. The bondingstructure 1036 may include any suitable material for bonding with thebonding structure 1026 on the first device 302. As previously described,in some embodiments a low temperature eutectic bond may be formed, andin such embodiments the bonding structure 1026 and the bonding structure1036 may form a eutectic pair. For example, the bonding structure 1026and the bonding structure 1036 may form an indium-tin (In—Sn) eutecticpair, a gold-tin (Au—Sn) eutectic pair, and aluminum-germanium (Al—Ge)eutectic pair, or a tin-silver-copper (Sn—Ag—Cu) combination. In thecase of Sn—Ag—Cu, two of the materials may be formed on the first device302 as the bonding structure 1026 with the remaining material formed asthe bonding structure 1036. The bonding structure 1036 (and otherbonding structures described herein with similar forms) may not be shownto scale, for example, downward protrusions shown in the bondingstructure 1036 may be substantially smaller in height than the height ofthe rest of the bonding structure 1036.

As shown in FIG. 24, the first device 302 and the second device 304 arethen bonded together. As previously described, such bonding may, in someembodiments, involve only the use of low temperature (e.g., below 450°C.) which may prevent damage to the metallization 1122, themetallization 1126, and other components on the second device 304.

In the non-limiting example illustrated, the bond is a eutectic bond,such that the bonding structure 1026 and the bonding structure 1036 incombination form the bonding point 216. The bonding point 216 forms anelectrical contact between the first device 302 and the second device304. As a further non-limiting example, a thermocompression bond may beformed using Au as the bonding material. For instance, the bondingstructure 1026 may include a seed layer (formed by sputtering orotherwise) of Ti/TiW/Au with plated Au formed thereon, and the bondingstructure 1036 may include a seed layer (formed by sputtering orotherwise) of TiW/Au with plated Ni/Au formed thereon. The layers oftitanium may serve as adhesion layers. The TiW layers may serve asadhesion layers and diffusion barriers. The nickel may serve as adiffusion barrier. The Au may form the bond. Other bonding materials mayalternatively be used.

As shown in FIG. 25, the insulating layer 1028 is removed, and the TSV408 and base layer 1118 are reduced in height. For example, grindingand/or etching may be used. The TSV 408 may be reduced in height to, forexample, between approximately 4 microns and approximately 750 micronsin height. Reducing the height of the TSV 408 may be helpful in reducingthe capacitance of the TSV 408, which can in turn reduce degradation ofthe bandwidth and noise performance of the TSV 408. Furthermore, if aheat sink is ultimately placed on the backside of the ultrasound device300, reducing the height of the TSV 408 can reduce the distance of thesecond device 304 and the first device 302 to the heat sink, which canreduce heating of the ultrasound device 300. Sufficient structuralintegrity may be provided for this processing step by the handle layer1002, which has not yet been removed.

In some embodiments, the second device 304 includes a bonding structurethat is electrically connected to the TSV 408. For example, the seconddevice 304 may be fabricated by a commercial foundry, and the bondingstructure may be fabricated by the foundry in order to provide externalelectrical connection to the TSV 408 and circuitry and/or routing layers(e.g., the metallization 1122) to which the TSV 408 is electricallyconnected. In such embodiments, the process may include removing theexisting bonding structure in electrical contact with the TSV 408. Thebonding structure may include, for example, a material that can beground in a grinding process, and that may be a different material thanthe TSV 408. After the second device 304 is thinned, a bonding structurecan be reformed to provide external electrical connection to the TSV408.

FIG. 26 illustrates that an insulating material 1042 (e.g., siliconoxide) is deposited on the second device 304 using any suitabletechnique (e.g., a suitable deposition).

As shown in FIG. 27, the insulating material 1042 is patterned (usingany suitable etch technique) in preparation for forming bondinglocations for later bonding of the second device 304 with the thirddevice 306, similar to as described in relation to FIG. 18.

In FIG. 28, a bonding structure 1046 is formed on the second device 304(by suitable deposition and patterning) at a location for bonding thefirst device 302 with the second device 304, similar to as described inrelation to FIG. 19. The bonding structure 1046 is shown adhered to anadhesion structure 1048.

As shown in FIG. 29, the third device 306 includes a base layer (e.g., abulk silicon wafer) 1050, an insulating layer 1052, metallization 1054,a via 1068, and metallization 1070. The via 1068 electrically connectsthe metallization 1054 and the metallization 1070. An insulating layer1056 is formed on the backside of the base layer 1050. The metallization1054 and the metallization 1070 may be formed of aluminum, copper, orany other suitable metallization material, and may represent at leastpart of an integrated circuit formed in the third device 306. Forexample, the metallization 1054 and the metallization 1070 may serve asrouting layers, may be patterned to form one or more electrodes, or maybe used for other functions. In practice, the third device 306 mayinclude more than two metallization layers and/or post-processedredistribution layers, but for simplicity only two metallizations areillustrated. The third device 306 may be fabricated by a commercialfoundry.

As shown in FIG. 30, layers 1058 and 1060, bonding structure 1062, andadhesion structures 1064 and 1066 are formed on the third device 306 ina similar way as described in relation to FIGS. 21-23.

As shown in FIG. 31, the third device 306 and the second device 304 arethen bonded together, similar to as described in relation to FIG. 24. Inthe non-limiting example illustrated, the bond is a eutectic bond, suchthat the bonding structure 1026 and the bonding structure 1036 incombination form the bonding point 418. As a further non-limitingexample, a thermocompression bond may be formed.

As shown in FIG. 32, the oxide layer 1005, the handle layer 1002, andthe BOX layer 1004 are removed, in any suitable manner, similar to asdescribed in relation to FIG. 15. For example, grinding, etching, or anyother suitable technique or combination of techniques may be used.Sufficient structural integrity may be provided for this processing stepby the base layer 1050.

Following removal of the oxide layer 1005, the handle layer 1002, andthe BOX layer 1004, additional processing on top of silicon device layer1108 may be performed. For example, electrical contacts (which may beformed of metal or any other suitable conductive contact material) maybe formed on the silicon device layer 1108. In some embodiments, anelectrical connection may be provided between the contacts on thesilicon device layer 1108 and a bond pad on the second device 304 and/orthe third device 306. For example, a wire bond may be provided or aconductive material (e.g., metal) may be deposited over the uppersurface of the ultrasound device 300 and patterned to form a conductivepath from the contact to the bond pad. However, alternative manners ofconnecting the contact to the second device 304 and/or the third device306 may be used. In some embodiments, an embedded via may be providedfrom the silicon device layer 1108 to the second device 304 and/or thethird device 306.

For further description of fabrication of ultrasound devices andadditional processing steps that may be performed, see U.S. Pat. No.9,067,779 titled “MICROFABRICATED ULTRASONIC TRANSDUCERS AND RELATEDAPPARATUS AND METHODS,” granted on Jun. 30, 2015 (and assigned to theassignee of the instant application) which is incorporated by referenceherein in its entirety.

It will be appreciated that alternative fabrication sequences to thesequence described in FIGS. 10-32 are possible. In some embodiments, thefabrication sequence may proceed in a different order than illustratedin FIGS. 10-32. In some embodiments, the second device 304 may not bethinned down. In some embodiments, the second device 304 may be bondedto the third device 306 before being bonded to the first device 302. Insuch embodiments, the second device 304 may not be thinned down, or ifthe second device 304 is thinned down, the second device 304 may firstbe bonded to a carrier wafer to provide structural integrity for thethinning process. The second device 304 may be thinned prior to bondingthe second device 304 to the third device 306. The carrier wafer may beremoved either before or after bonding the second device 304 to thethird device 306.

FIGS. 33-42 illustrate example cross-sections of the ultrasound device300 during an alternative fabrication sequence to that of FIGS. 20-32.FIG. 33 illustrates the second device 304, which is the same as that ofFIG. 20. As shown in FIG. 34, an opening 1072 is formed in theinsulating layer 1120 (using any suitable etch technique) to expose aportion of the metallization 1122. In FIG. 35, a solder ball 1074 isdeposited on the exposed portion of the metallization 1120. FIG. 36illustrates the third device 306, which is the same as that of FIG. 29.As shown in FIG. 37, an opening 1076 is formed in the insulating layer1052 (using any suitable etch technique) to expose a portion of themetallization 1054 that constitutes a bonding pad.

In FIG. 38, the second device 304 and the third device 306 are bonded byflipping the second device 304 from top to bottom from the orientationshown in FIGS. 33-35. The second device 304 and the third device 306 arebrought together such that the solder ball 1074 in the second device 304contacts the exposed portion of the metallization 1054 in the thirddevice 306 and forms an electrical connection between the metallization1122 and the metallization 1054, thus constituting the bonding point418. The bonding point 418 forms an electrical contact between thesecond device 304 and the third device 306. The solder ball 1074 may beremelted after contacting the metallization 1054. In embodiments inwhich the second device 304 and the third device 306 are dies, thisbonding process may constitute flip chip bonding. In embodiments inwhich the second device 304 and the third device 306 are wafers, thisbonding process may constitute a wafer-level equivalent of flip chipbonding in which one or more solder balls on the second device 304 arebonded to one or more bonding pads on the third device 306. In FIG. 39,the insulating layer 1028 is removed, and the TSV 408 and base layer1118 are reduced in height, similar to as described with reference toFIG. 25. In FIG. 40, an insulating material 1078 is deposited on thesecond device 304 and patterned, similar to as described with referenceto FIGS. 26-27. Furthermore, layers 1086 and 1088, bonding structure1084, and adhesion structures 1080 and 1082 are formed on the seconddevice 304 in a similar way as described in relation to FIGS. 21-23.

In FIG. 41, the first device 302 is bonded to the second device 304 toform the bonding point 216, in a similar way as described in relation toFIG. 24. As shown in FIG. 42, the oxide layer 1005, the handle layer1002, and the BOX layer 1004 are removed, similar to as described inrelation to FIG. 32.

It will be appreciated that alternative fabrication sequences to thesequence described in FIGS. 33-42 are possible. In some embodiments, thefabrication sequence may proceed in a different order than illustratedin FIGS. 10-32. In some embodiments, the second device 304 may not bethinned down. In some embodiments, the second device 304 may be bondedto the first device 302 before being bonded to the third device 306. Insuch embodiments, the second device 304 may not be thinned down, or ifthe second device 304 is thinned down, the second device 304 may firstbe bonded to a carrier wafer to provide structural integrity for thethinning process. The second device 304 may be thinned prior to bondingthe second device 304 to the third device 306. The carrier wafer may beremoved either before or after bonding the second device 304 to thethird device 306.

It should also be noted that bonding between the first device 302 andthe second device 304 and/or bonding between the second device 304 andthe third device 306 may be accomplished using redistribution and solderbump technology. Further description of bonding using redistribution andsolder bump technology can be found in U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/799,484 titled “MICROFABRICATED ULTRASONIC TRANSDUCERS AND RELATEDAPPARATUS AND METHODS,” filed on Jul. 14, 2015 and published as U.S.Patent Publication No. 2016/0009544 A1 (and assigned to the assignee ofthe instant application), which is incorporated by reference herein inits entirety.

FIGS. 43-45 illustrate simplified cross-sections of the second device304 during an alternative fabrication sequence for forming theultrasound device 300 in accordance with certain embodiments describedherein. In FIG. 43, a simplified version of the second device 304includes a plurality of TSVs 408 which do not extend to the bottomsurface 4304 of the second device 304. Other components of the seconddevice 304, including those components previously described, are omittedfrom this figure for simplicity of illustration. In FIG. 43, theplurality of TSVs 408 are conical. Integrated circuit foundriestypically impose design rules on the integrated circuits they fabricate.For example, design rules for TSVs may limit how closely TSVs can bespaced together. In FIG. 43, the wide ends of the plurality of TSVs 408have smaller diameters than would the wide ends of TSVs that extend tothe bottom surface 4304 of the second device 304. The design rulesgoverning spacing of TSVs may therefore allow the plurality of TSVs 408in FIG. 43 to have a smaller pitch than if the plurality of TSVs 408extended to the bottom surface 4304 of the second device 304. Because,as described above, each of the plurality of TSVs 408 in the seconddevice 304 may correspond to a single ultrasonic transducer 260 in thefirst device 302, reducing the pitch of the plurality of TSVs 408 mayenable reducing the pitch of the ultrasonic transducers 260 andincreasing how many ultrasonic transducers 260 can be implemented in thefirst device 302. In FIG. 44, the second device 304 is thinned to exposethe plurality of TSVs 408, using a similar process as described inrelation to FIGS. 25 and 39. In FIG. 45, bonding structures 4306 areimplemented at the exposed surfaces of the plurality of TSVs 408, usingthe same or a substantially similar process as described in relation toFIGS. 26-28 and 40, to facilitate electrical connection of the TSVs tothe third device 306 when the third device 306 is bonded to the seconddevice 304. In some embodiments, the plurality of TSVs 408 may beconical with their narrow ends proximal to the bottom surface 4304 ofthe second device 304, as opposed to the wider ends being proximal tothe bottom surface 4304 of the second device 304 as shown in FIG. 43. Insuch embodiments, the above advantages may still be realized in asimilar manner as described above by limiting the distance that theplurality of TSVs 408 extend from their narrow ends to their wide ends.In some embodiments, the plurality of TSVs 408 may not be conical.

It should be appreciated that any of the fabrication sequences describedherein may be used to fabricate the ultrasound devices 300, 400, 500,600, 700, or 800. Additionally, the fabrication sequence illustrated inFIGS. 10-25 may be used for bonding a first device to a second device inthe ultrasound devices 100 and 200, although the second device may lacka TSV 408.

FIG. 46 illustrates an example of a device implemented as areconstituted wafer, in accordance with certain embodiments describedherein. As referred to herein, a “reconstituted wafer” is a wafer onwhich multiple dies are mounted. The reconstituted wafer 4600 includes awafer 4602 and a plurality of dies 4604. The plurality of dies 4604 arecoupled to the wafer 4602, for example by a mold compound. Implementingthe second device 304 and/or the third device 306 as a reconstitutedwafer 4600 may be beneficial because it may be possible to test dies forfunctionality/performance prior to forming the reconstituted wafer 4600and choose which dies to include in the reconstituted wafer 4600 basedon the testing. Additionally, as described above, the third device 306and the second device 304 may be dies. As further described above, thethird device 306 may be implemented in a more advanced technology nodethan the second device 304. Due to cost and yield considerations, it maynot be desirable to fabricate dies in a more advanced (smaller)technology node that are the same size as dies fabricated in a lessadvanced (larger) technology node. If the third device 306 as a die isnot the same size as the second device 304 as a die, the third device306 may not be able to bond to each bond point on the second device 304.If the second device 304 is implemented as a reconstituted wafer 4600,and the plurality of dies 4604 include integrated receive circuitry,groups of two or more of the plurality of dies 4604 may then align withand bond to one die including integrated transmit circuitry in thesecond device 304 when the second device 304 is a wafer includingmultiple dies. This may be beneficial when, for example, the pluralityof dies 4604 in the third device 306 are smaller in size than the diesin the second device 304.

FIG. 47 illustrates an example process 4700 for forming an ultrasounddevice in accordance with certain embodiments described herein. In act4702, a first device that includes ultrasonic transducers is bonded to asecond device that includes integrated transmit circuitry (e.g.,pulsers), for example as described above in reference to FIGS. 10-24. Insome embodiments, the second device may also include integrated analogreceive circuitry (e.g., amplifiers and ADCs). The process 4700 thenproceeds to act 4704. In act 4704, a third device that includesintegrated digital receive circuitry is bonded to the second device, forexample as described above in reference to FIGS. 25-32. In someembodiments, the third device may also include integrated analog receivecircuitry (e.g., amplifiers and ADCs). In some embodiments, act 4704 maybe absent, and the third device may not be bonded to the second device.Instead, the third device may be coupled to the same PCB as the stack ofthe first device and the second device, and the third device may be incommunication with the second device (e.g., through a trace on the PCB).

FIG. 48 illustrates an example process 4800 for forming an ultrasounddevice in accordance with certain embodiments described herein. In act4802, a third device that includes integrated digital receive circuitryis bonded to a second device that includes integrated transmit circuitry(e.g., pulsers), for example as described above in reference to FIGS.33-38. In some embodiments, the second device may also includeintegrated analog receive circuitry (e.g., amplifiers and ADCs). In someembodiments, the third device may also include integrated analog receivecircuitry (e.g., amplifiers and ADCs). The process 4800 then proceeds toact 4804. In act 4804, a first device that includes ultrasonictransducers is bonded to the second device, for example as describedabove in reference to FIGS. 39-42. In some embodiments, act 4802 may beabsent, and the third device may not be bonded to the second device.Instead, the third device may be coupled to the same PCB as the stack ofthe first device and the second device, and the third device may be incommunication with the second device (e.g., through a trace on the PCB).

FIG. 49 illustrates an example process for 4900 for forming anultrasound device in accordance with certain embodiments describedherein. In act 4902, a first device that includes ultrasonic transducersis formed from an SOI wafer and a silicon wafer, for example asdescribed above in relation to FIGS. 10-15. The process 4900 thenproceeds to act 4904. In act 4904, the first device is bonded to asecond device that includes integrated transmit circuitry (e.g.,pulsers) and TSVs, for example as described above in relation to FIGS.16-24. The process 4900 then proceeds to act 4906. In act 4906, thesecond device is thinned, for example as described above in relation toFIG. 25. The process 4900 then proceeds to act 4908. In act 4908,bonding structures that are electrically connected to the TSVs areformed, for example as described above in relation to FIGS. 26-28. Theprocess 4900 then proceeds to act 4910. In act 4910, the second deviceis bonded to a third device that includes integrated digital receivecircuitry, for example as described above in relation to FIGS. 29-31.The process 4900 then proceeds to act 4912. In act 4912, the handlelayer of the SOI wafer is removed, for example as described above inrelation to FIG. 32. In some embodiments, the second device may alsoinclude integrated analog receive circuitry (e.g., amplifiers and ADCs).In some embodiments, the third device may also include integrated analogreceive circuitry (e.g., amplifiers and ADCs). In some embodiments, act4910 may be absent, and the third device may not be bonded to the seconddevice. Instead, the third device may be coupled to the same PCB as thestack of the first device and the second device, and the third devicemay be in communication with the second device (e.g., through a trace onthe PCB).

FIG. 50 illustrates an example process 5000 for forming an ultrasounddevice in accordance with certain embodiments described herein. In act5002, a second device that includes integrated transmit circuitry (e.g.,pulsers) is bonded to a third device that includes integrated digitalreceive circuitry, for example as described above in relation to FIGS.33-38. The process 5000 then proceeds to act 5004. In act 5004, thesecond device is thinned, for example as described above in relation toFIG. 39. The process 5000 then proceeds to act 5006. In act 5006,bonding structures that are electrically connected to the TSVs areformed, for example as described above in relation to FIG. 40. Theprocess 5000 then proceeds to act 5008. In act 5008, the first device302 that includes ultrasonic transducers is bonded to the second device304, for example as described above in relation to FIGS. 41-42. In someembodiments, the second device may also include integrated analogreceive circuitry (e.g., amplifiers and ADCs). In some embodiments, thethird device may also include integrated analog receive circuitry (e.g.,amplifiers and ADCs). In some embodiments, act 5002 may be absent, andthe third device may not be bonded to the second device. Instead, thethird device may be coupled to the same PCB as the stack of the firstdevice and the second device, and the third device may be incommunication with the second device (e.g., through a trace on the PCB).

As described above, it will be appreciated that alternative processesare possible. In some embodiments, the second device may not be thinneddown. In some embodiments, the second device may be bonded to the thirddevice before being bonded to the first device. In such embodiments, thesecond device may not be thinned down, or if the second device isthinned down, the second device may first be bonded to a carrier waferto provide structural integrity for the thinning process. The seconddevice may be thinned prior to bonding the second device to the thirddevice. The carrier wafer may be removed either before or after bondingthe second device to the third device.

Various inventive concepts may be embodied as one or more processes, ofwhich examples have been provided. The acts performed as part of eachprocess may be ordered in any suitable way. Thus, embodiments may beconstructed in which acts are performed in an order different thanillustrated, which may include performing some acts simultaneously, eventhough shown as sequential acts in illustrative embodiments. Further,one or more of the processes may be combined and/or omitted, and one ormore of the processes may include additional steps.

FIG. 51 illustrates an example block diagram of an ultrasound device5100 in accordance with certain embodiments described herein. Theultrasound device 5100 includes a first device 5102, a second device5104, and a third device 5106. The ultrasound device 5100, the firstdevice 5102, the second device 5104, and the third device 5106 may beexamples of the ultrasound device 300, the first device 302, the seconddevice 304, and the third device 306, respectively, illustrated in moredetail. The ultrasound device 5100 differs from the ultrasound device400 in that each ultrasonic transducer 260 is connected, through areceive switch 262, a TSV 208, and a bonding point 418, to an ADC 5180,followed by a filter 5182, followed by digital beamforming circuitry5184.

The digital beamforming circuitry 5184 may be configured to performdigital beamforming. Digital beamforming may provide highersignal-to-noise ratio (SNR), higher sampling resolution, moreflexibility in delay patterns implemented by the digital beamformingcircuitry 5184, and more flexibility in grouping of ultrasonictransducers 260 for beamforming, as compared to analog beamforming.However, digital beamforming requires that the analog ultrasonic signalreceived from each ultrasonic transducer 260 be individually digitized.Certain ultrasound devices described above may include one ADC perelement; here, the ultrasound device 5100 illustrates a specific exampleof implementing per-element digitization. (In FIG. 5100, an element isone ultrasonic transducer 260, but in some embodiments, one element maybe a group of ultrasonic transducers 260). In FIG. 51, the ADC 5180 is adelta-sigma ADC (also sometimes referred to as a sigma-delta ADC). Therelatively small consumption of power and area by a delta-sigma ADC 5180as compared with other types of ADCs may make delta-sigma ADCs 5180practical for an ultrasound device 5100 implementing per-elementdigitization and digital beamforming. The implementation of onedelta-sigma ADC 5180 per ultrasonic transducer 260 (or, in someembodiments, per element) may be feasible when implementing the thirddevice 5106 in a sufficiently small technology node (e.g., 90 nm, 80 nm,65 nm, 55 nm, 45 nm, 40 nm, 32 nm, 28 nm, 22 nm, 20 nm, 16 nm, 14 nm, 10nm, 7 nm, 5 nm, or 3 nm) as described above. Each delta-sigma ADC 5180is directly electrically coupled to an ultrasonic transducer 260.Directly electrically coupling an ultrasonic transducer 260 to an ADC5180 may mean that there are no amplifiers or multiplexers between theultrasonic transducer 260 and the ADC 5180, but does not exclude thepossibility that the ultrasonic transducer 260 is electrically coupledto the ADC 5180 through the switch 262, the TSV 408, and the bondingpoint 418. When the ultrasonic transducer 260 is a CMUT, as will bedescribed below, parasitic capacitance inherent to the CMUT may provideintegration capability for the delta-sigma ADC 5180 that is typicallyprovided by a separate integrator component. Obviating the need for aseparate integrator component may further reduce power consumption andarea. The filters 5182 may decimate the oversampled output signal fromthe delta-sigma ADC 5180 in order to improve thesignal-to-quantization-noise ratio (SQNR) of the delta-sigma ADC 5180.The filters 5182 may be cascaded integral-comb (CIC) filters.

FIG. 52 illustrates a diagram of an ultrasonic transducer 260electrically coupled to a delta-sigma ADC 5180, in accordance withcertain embodiments. For simplicity, in FIG. 52, the pulser 264, theswitch 262, the TSV 408, and the bonding point 418 are omitted. In FIG.52, the ultrasonic transducer is a CMUT and is represented by a circuitmodel of a CMUT. The circuit model of the ultrasonic transducer 260includes a current source 5102, a resistor 5104, a capacitor 5106, aninductor 5108, a capacitor 5110, a node 5112, an output terminal 5114,and ground 5116. The current source 5102 is electrically coupled betweenthe node 5112 and ground 5116. The resistor 5104 is electrically coupledbetween the node 5112 and ground 5116. The capacitor 5106 and theinductor 5108 are electrically coupled in series and are electricallycoupled between the node 5112 and the output terminal 5114. Thecapacitor 5110 is electrically coupled between the output terminal 5114and ground 5116. The current source 5102 may model the current signalgenerated by the ultrasonic transducer 260 in response to ultrasonicwaves. The resistor 5104, the capacitor 5106, and the inductor 5108 maymodel the resonant property of the ultrasonic transducer 260. Thecapacitor 5110 may model parasitic capacitance of the ultrasonictransducer 260. The current difference, I_(CMUT), between the currententering the output terminal 5114 and exiting the output terminal 5114through the capacitor 5110 may be considered the output current of theultrasonic transducer 260.

The resonator formed by the resistor 5104, the capacitor 5106, and theinductor 5108 may be considered a low-Q resonator in that the Q of theresonator may be less than 0.5. The resistance of the resistor 5104 maybe significantly greater than 1/(ω*C_(p)), where ω is the frequency ofthe current signal I_(CMUT) and C_(p) is the capacitance of thecapacitor 5110. In some embodiments, C_(p) may be on the order of tenthsof femtofarads to tens of millifarads. In some embodiments, I_(CMUT) maybe on the order of tens of picoamps to hundreds of microamps, includingany value in those ranges.

While typical delta-sigma ADCs include a current integrator, directlyelectrically coupling the output terminal 5114 of the ultrasonictransducer 260 to the delta-sigma ADC 5180 may obviate the need for adistinct current integrator, as the capacitor 5110 may serve as thecurrent integrator. It should be noted that the capacitor 5110 of theultrasonic transducer 260 may be considered to be within the feedbackloop of the delta-sigma ADC 5180. Thus, in addition to using thecapacitor 5110 of the ultrasonic transducer 260 as a current integrator,the delta-sigma ADC 5180 includes a voltage quantizer 5220 and a currentdigital-to-analog converter (current DAC or I_(DAC)) 5222. The voltagequantizer 5220 includes an input terminal 5228 and an output terminal5232. The current DAC 5222 includes an input terminal 5234 and an outputterminal 5236. The output terminal 5236 of the current DAC 5222 iselectrically coupled to the output terminal 5114 of the ultrasonictransducer 260. The output terminal 5114 of the ultrasonic transducer260 is also electrically coupled to the input terminal 5228 of thequantizer 5220. The output terminal 5232 of the voltage quantizer 5220is electrically coupled to the input terminal 5234 of the current DAC5222.

In operation, the current I_(CMUT) may be the signal that thedelta-sigma ADC 5180 converts from analog to digital. The voltageD_(OUT) at the output terminal 5232 of the voltage quantizer 5220 may beconsidered the output of the delta-sigma ADC 5180 and may be a digitalrepresentation of the analog signal I_(CMUT). The delta-sigma ADC 5180includes a feedback loop where the capacitor 5110 (serving as a currentintegrator) and the voltage quantizer 5220 are in the forward path ofthe feedback loop and the current DAC 5222 is in the feedback path ofthe feedback loop. The capacitor 5110 may be configured to integrateI_(CMUT) to produce an output voltage. The quantizer 5220 may beconfigured to accept this output voltage as an input and outputs adigital logic level depending on whether the voltage is less than orgreater than a threshold voltage. This digital logic level, over time,may be the output D_(OUT) of the delta-sigma ADC. The current DAC 5222may be configured to accept the digital logic level as an input andoutput a corresponding analog current I_(feedback). Through the feedbackloop, I_(feedback) may be added to I_(CMUT) at the output terminal 5114of the ultrasonic transducer 260. This feedback loop may providenegative feedback, as in response to a positive input signal to thequantizer 5220, the quantizer 5220 may output a digital logic level thatis converted by the current DAC 5222 to a negative I_(feedback), andvice versa. D_(OUT) may be a pulse stream in which the frequency ofpulses may be proportional to the input to the delta-sigma ADC 5180,namely the analog current signal I_(CMUT). This frequency may beenforced by the feedback loop of the delta-sigma ADC 5180. Thedelta-sigma ADC 5180 may oversample (e.g., at the quantizer 5220) theprocessed input current signal I_(CMUT), and a filter may decimate theoversampled signal, in order to improve the signal-to-quantization-noiseratio (SQNR) of the delta-sigma ADC 5180.

It should be appreciated that in some embodiments, differentarchitectures for the delta-sigma ADC 5180 may be used. In someembodiments, the delta-sigma ADC 5180 may be a second or third orderdelta-sigma ADC. In some embodiments, the delta-sigma ADC 5180 mayinclude a second-order loop-filter. In some embodiments, the delta-sigmaADC 5180 may include a third-order loop-filter. In some embodiments, thedelta-sigma ADC 5180 may include two feedback paths. In someembodiments, the delta-sigma ADC 5180 may include three feedback paths.In some embodiments, the delta-sigma ADC 5180 may include one feedbackpath and one feedforward path. In some embodiments, the delta-sigma ADC5180 may include two feedback paths and one feedforward path.

Various aspects of the present disclosure may be used alone, incombination, or in a variety of arrangements not specifically describedin the embodiments described in the foregoing and is therefore notlimited in its application to the details and arrangement of componentsset forth in the foregoing description or illustrated in the drawings.For example, aspects described in one embodiment may be combined in anymanner with aspects described in other embodiments.

The indefinite articles “a” and “an,” as used herein in thespecification and in the claims, unless clearly indicated to thecontrary, should be understood to mean “at least one.”

The phrase “and/or,” as used herein in the specification and in theclaims, should be understood to mean “either or both” of the elements soconjoined, i.e., elements that are conjunctively present in some casesand disjunctively present in other cases. Multiple elements listed with“and/or” should be construed in the same fashion, i.e., “one or more” ofthe elements so conjoined. Other elements may optionally be presentother than the elements specifically identified by the “and/or” clause,whether related or unrelated to those elements specifically identified.Thus, as a non-limiting example, a reference to “A and/or B”, when usedin conjunction with open-ended language such as “comprising” can refer,in one embodiment, to A only (optionally including elements other thanB); in another embodiment, to B only (optionally including elementsother than A); in yet another embodiment, to both A and B (optionallyincluding other elements); etc.

As used herein in the specification and in the claims, the phrase “atleast one,” in reference to a list of one or more elements, should beunderstood to mean at least one element selected from any one or more ofthe elements in the list of elements, but not necessarily including atleast one of each and every element specifically listed within the listof elements and not excluding any combinations of elements in the listof elements. This definition also allows that elements may optionally bepresent other than the elements specifically identified within the listof elements to which the phrase “at least one” refers, whether relatedor unrelated to those elements specifically identified. Thus, as anon-limiting example, “at least one of A and B” (or, equivalently, “atleast one of A or B,” or, equivalently “at least one of A and/or B”) canrefer, in one embodiment, to at least one, optionally including morethan one, A, with no B present (and optionally including elements otherthan B); in another embodiment, to at least one, optionally includingmore than one, B, with no A present (and optionally including elementsother than A); in yet another embodiment, to at least one, optionallyincluding more than one, A, and at least one, optionally including morethan one, B (and optionally including other elements); etc.

Use of ordinal terms such as “first,” “second,” “third,” etc., in theclaims to modify a claim element does not by itself connote anypriority, precedence, or order of one claim element over another or thetemporal order in which acts of a method are performed, but are usedmerely as labels to distinguish one claim element having a certain namefrom another element having a same name (but for use of the ordinalterm) to distinguish the claim elements.

The terms “approximately” and “about” may be used to mean within ±20% ofa target value in some embodiments, within ±10% of a target value insome embodiments, within ±5% of a target value in some embodiments, andyet within ±2% of a target value in some embodiments. The terms“approximately” and “about” may include the target value.

Also, the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose ofdescription and should not be regarded as limiting. The use of“including,” “comprising,” or “having,” “containing,” “involving,” andvariations thereof herein, is meant to encompass the items listedthereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additional items.

Having described above several aspects of at least one embodiment, it isto be appreciated various alterations, modifications, and improvementswill readily occur to those skilled in the art. Such alterations,modifications, and improvements are intended to be object of thisdisclosure. Accordingly, the foregoing description and drawings are byway of example only.

What is claimed is:
 1. An ultrasound device, comprising: a first diethat comprises an ultrasonic transducer; a first application-specificintegrated circuit (ASIC) that is bonded to the first die and comprisesa pulser; and a second ASIC in communication with the first ASIC thatcomprises integrated digital receive circuitry.
 2. The ultrasound deviceof claim 1, wherein the first ASIC is bonded to the second ASIC.
 3. Theultrasound device of claim 1, wherein the second ASIC further comprisesanalog processing circuitry.
 4. The ultrasound device of claim 3,wherein the analog processing circuitry comprises an analog amplifier,an analog filter, analog beamforming circuitry, analog dechirpcircuitry, analog quadrature demodulation (AQDM) circuitry, analog timedelay circuitry, analog phase shifter circuitry, analog summingcircuitry, analog time gain compensation circuitry, and/or analogaveraging circuitry.
 5. The ultrasound device of claim 1, wherein thesecond ASIC further comprises an analog-to-digital converter.
 6. Theultrasound device of claim 1, wherein the first ASIC comprises athrough-silicon via (TSV).
 7. The ultrasound device of claim 6, whereinthe first ASIC comprises one TSV per ultrasonic transducer in the firstdie.
 8. The ultrasound device of claim 6, wherein the first ASICcomprises one TSV per pulser in the first ASIC.
 9. The ultrasound deviceof claim 6, wherein a height of the TSV is between approximately 4microns and approximately 750 microns.
 10. The ultrasound device ofclaim 6, wherein: the first ASIC comprises a receive switch; the secondASIC comprises analog processing circuitry; and the TSV is disposedbetween the receive switch and the analog processing circuitry in thesecond ASIC.
 11. The ultrasound device of claim 1, wherein the firstASIC further comprises analog processing circuitry.
 12. The ultrasounddevice of claim 1, wherein the first ASIC further comprises ananalog-to-digital converter.
 13. The ultrasound device of claim 1,further comprising a communication link disposed between the first ASICand the second ASIC having a data rate of approximately 2-5gigabits/second.
 14. The ultrasound device of claim 1, wherein: thefirst ASIC comprises serial-deserializer (SERDES) transmit circuitry;the second ASIC comprises SERDES receive circuitry; a communication linkis disposed between the SERDES transmit circuitry and the SERDES receivecircuitry; and the SERDES transmit circuitry and the SERDES receivecircuitry are configured to facilitate communication between the firstASIC and the second ASIC over the communication link.
 15. The ultrasounddevice of claim 14, wherein: the (a) bonded first die and first ASIC and(b) the second ASIC are coupled to a PCB that comprises a trace; and thetrace on the PCB comprises the communication link.
 16. The ultrasounddevice of claim 14, wherein: the first ASIC is bonded to the secondASIC; the first ASIC comprises a TSV; and the TSV comprises thecommunication link.
 17. The ultrasound device of claim 1, wherein theintegrated digital receive circuitry comprises one or more digitalfilters, digital beamforming circuitry, digital quadrature demodulation(DQDM) circuitry, averaging circuitry, digital dechirp circuitry,digital time delay circuitry, digital phase shifter circuitry, digitalsumming circuitry, digital multiplying circuitry, requantizationcircuitry, waveform removal circuitry, image formation circuitry,backend processing circuitry and/or one or more output buffers.
 18. Theultrasound device of claim 1, wherein the first ASIC is implemented in afirst technology node, the second ASIC is implemented in a secondtechnology node, and the first technology node is different than thesecond technology node.
 19. The ultrasound device of claim 18, whereinthe second technology node is a smaller technology node than the firsttechnology node.
 20. The ultrasound device of claim 18, wherein thesecond technology node is 65 nm, 80 nm, 90 nm, 110 nm, 130 nm, 150 nm,180 nm, 220 nm, 240 nm, 250 nm, 280 nm, 350 nm, or 500 nm.
 21. Theultrasound device of claim 18, wherein the first technology node is 90nm, 80 nm, 65 nm, 55 nm, 45 nm, 40 nm, 32 nm, 28 nm, 22 nm, 20 nm, 16nm, 14 nm, 10 nm, 7 nm, 5 nm, or 3 nm.
 22. The ultrasound device ofclaim 1, wherein the integrated digital receive circuitry is configuredto operate at an operating voltage in a range of approximately 0.45-0.9volts.
 23. The ultrasound device of claim 1, wherein the integrateddigital receive circuitry is configured to operate at an operatingvoltage in a range of approximately 1-1.8 volts.
 24. The ultrasounddevice of claim 1, wherein the integrated digital receive circuitry isconfigured to operate at an operating voltage in a range ofapproximately 2.5-3.3 volts.